Wednesday, April 24, 2013

There are many baked products that you could make at home, but because of time, effort, and quality issues, probably shouldn’t.
Fortunately, pita bread is not on that list.The dough is easy to make, and
much like the flour tortillas we did, the taste and texture of the freshly made
product is far superior to anything that comes with a twist tie.

The method is very straightforward, but I wanted to take a
moment to talk about production. As you’ll see in the clip, after you roll the
pita dough out, you’ll need to let it rest for 5 minutes before grilling. Since
each one takes about 5-6 minutes in the pan, while one is cooking, you’ll want
to roll the next, so it’s rested and ready to puff.

Speaking of “puff,” don’t be too upset if yours don’t go
full balloon. Sometimes they all puff, sometimes some, and sometimes none. This
is the way of the pita. But the good news is, even if they don’t fully puff,
you should still get some sort of internal pocket with which to stuff. Even if
you don’t, it’s okay…you’ll just call them “flatbread” instead! I hope you give
these a try soon. Enjoy!

ok joking aside, just wanted to ask, if you could guestimate how long from start to finish did you need... timewise. Looking for a fun project this weekend for my 7 year old (who loves to help me in the kitchen). doing a bit of math, looked to be a good 2 hours including resting/raising times.

Someone asked if they could bake pitas and the answer is yes, which is how I make mine all the time.

Someone also asked if they can be made with wholewheat flour and the answer is yes to that as well. I use half wholewheat and half AP flour or else half pastry wholewheat and half AP flour. The method remains the same.

1 Put the yeast, water, salt, oil, and 1 1/2 cups flour in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with the bread hook and beat to make a batter. Add more flour until a rough, shaggy mass is formed. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add more flour only if the dough is too sticky.2 Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 pieces for large pitas or 12 pieces for small pitas. Form the dough into balls and then roll into 1/4-inch thick discs. Lightly flour the top of the pitas and then loosely cover with saran. Let rest on the floured surface for 30-40 minutes or until slightly puffed. 4 Preheat the oven to 425F with a baking stone on the rack. If you don’t have a baking stone, use an inverted cookie sheet. 5 Flip the pitas as you transfer them to the baking stone. Bake the pitas for 10 to 15 minutes or until a light golden brown color.

Hey chef! I was wondering, did you use AP or bread flour for this recipe =)? It didn't mention in the video and it doesn't on here either. So I just used bread flour for the sponge and AP for the rest.

I just made some earlier to try with the chicken adobo I'm making tonight (your recipe as well) and they taste great!I got them all to balloon as well. When I put them in the griddle, as soon as you could see bubble/little pockets forming, I flipped them. Then I waited until I saw a larger pocket form and I flipped it again and did so until it was evenly puffed up :D

Yum, I buy a lot of flat breads, but I've never made any type of yeast breads at home before (call me a baking newbie). I don't have a standing mixer and I'd really like to try this recipe. Are there any tips or tricks you could give to make it without a standing mixer?

As an Arab American, I can attest that Chef John's recipe is legit. My family owns two specialty food markets in the Bay Area and we get pita bread from some of the best companies in the States. Called Crossroads Specialty Foods (@Chef John, you should visit us in Palo Alto or Hayward, you'll have a field day).

I have been so hesitant to try pita because of the horror stories I've heard about cooking it in the oven. After watching your video I decided to try it. I am so glad I did! Super simple! Tastes so yummy! We ate it with hummus(yum). I only had 2 that didn't puff up but I think that was my fault(didn't roll them out thin enough and didn't let them rest before cooking them). The rest of them puffed up like balloons. Thank you so much for sharing

chef John, you're just amazing !I've made it my tradition to cook/bake any random recipe from your blog every week for my family!last week was the pull-apart bread and today is this lovely pita which am sure it's gonna turn out amazing as usual .. (( & ofc made the tzatziki on the side :) ))thank you for all your tasty recipes .. wish you all the best ..

I've done this today, and it worked perfectly. Even rolling thinner than in the video, every one puffed, except the first two.

Seeing these two I think you have to let each side just cook slightly and then flip again, in the beginning. If one side is left for too much time, most of the dough will cook on it, and there will be too little left to form the other side, so it puffed slightly or not at all.

Cooking evenly as I said every one puffed, so much that I could even hear the steam coming out ; ).

I tried these last weekend and they came out perfect. (They were all gone in less than 5 minutes).

Followed the recipe exactly. One question though - I measured the flour by cup, not weight, and as I was slowly adding the second batch of flour, I noticed that the dough was getting too tough to add the full 1.75 cups. I couldn't get more than one cup into it before it started to pull away from the sides and get firm. I was doing it by hand, not with a mixer.

I tried it again this evening (dough rising as we speak...er...type) and same thing happened. Got about 1.25 cups in and the dough started to feel too dry.

Has anyone else had this experience? Is it because I'm using a cup measurement rather than a weight one?

Hi Chef John!!I tried your recipe, but any of my pitas puffed!! :(I did use half whole wheat and half plain flour, also added a little crushed garlic, the taste was great. But when I was kneading it, it continued to brake, I couldn´t get it smooth, any advise? Thank you for all your recipes!!

I gave a boring question to make: How much dry yeast (by weight) goes on the dough?

I ask this because I have a good amount of non-dried yeast and I know that the weight conversion is 3 to one, but the volume conversion is not so straightforward, so, how much (in weight) goes in this recipe? I'm guessing 10g or about 0.35 oz of dry yeast?

I usually flip after the first side starts to brown a little. Maybe a minute or two. Not really a time thing. More of a look thing. They do go about 3-4 minutes total, but depends on pan, heat, and how thick u roll.

The risk with baking these awesome pitas in the oven is them burning. You would need to set the oven temperature very high and WATCH THEM LIKE A HAWK!I've made pita in the oven and found them to be profoundly okay. When I use my NS skillet, lightly oiled of course, they turn out much better.

I apologize for the plebeian nature of this question...but will the dough keep for any length of time? I have visions of starting each morning with a fresh fried egg stuffed into a freshly fried pita bread with some homemade mayo, lettuce and select few herbs...but I don't want to wake up at 4:00 to make the dough!

Made these yesterday and it has been the only recipe I have made that it has come out exactly how explained. Today I made them with some medium boiled eggs, plum tomatoes and cheese, Yummmm. Best Pita bread Ever. Thank You so much. Looking forward to try out more of your recipes.

Yummmii what's better than fresh pita! I tried this recipe today and they turned out awesome!had some nice puffs! I made them with chicken Shawerma but we ended up eating the bread immediately before stuffing it with Shawerma! can't thank you enough Chef john for your great recipes and the explanation.

I made a big batch of these to turn into pita chips for the superbowl tomorrow and I believe I've figured out a way to make them puff reliably:

* Cook the pita on one side for about 20 seconds. The idea is to cook it just long enough to make a skin form on the bottom, but not long enough that bubbles start to form on the top.

* Flip the pita over and cook it all the way through on the back side.

* Flip the pita back over to the original side and it will balloon up.

As far as I can tell the skin that forms from that first quick cooking traps the air in. Cooking it for a short time prevents small bubbles from forming, which I found then tend to burn and pop when they're on the bottom, preventing a full puff.

For full disclosure: I used a no-knead pizza dough (which was way too sticky, so I kneaded in another cup or two of flour until the dough was manageable). My pitas were fairly small, 16 pitas from 4 cups of flour (plus the extra I added).

Hello Chef John,I'm Fabio from Italy.Please,I have a question about your pita bread recipe:-I developed intolerance to dry active yeast...I'd like to try the recipe using sourdough starter,the same you use to make San Francisco bread.Do you think it is possible?-could you help me with new proportions of sourdough,water and flour?-if i use sourdough starter,do I need to follow the first step of the recipe(where you dissolve yeast,water and flour and you!Thanks a lot,forgive my bad english please!Congrats for your website!Best,Fabio

Arrrrgh! Mine didn't puff up at all! I wonder what I did wrong. :/ Oh well, instead of awesome pitas, I wound up with awesome flatbreads instead! Went great with your tzatziki sauce recipe and some stewed lamb!

Oh, and by the way these really ARE far superior to any store-bought stuff. We ran out of pitas before the tzatziki and when we used store bought pitas it was like eating cardboard. I've got more dough rising in the oven right now. <3

Medium-high heat is pretty far above the smoke point of the olive oil I've got. Is the idea to have the oil polymerize and add a layer of seasoning to the pan? I chickened out and did them around medium-low, but none puffed.

I tried it again, and I turned up the heat as you said. However, the trick I found is that if I flipped them constantly, I'd get puff. When I just cooked one side and then the other like you did in the video, I was puff-less.

So I guess you really are the (ugh) Puff Daddy. After all, you're makin' dough and packin' rolls!

Chef John, Thanks so much for your great videos. My 1st attempt at pitas resulted in tasty flat bread. I watched your video prior to my 2nd attempt and got the 'puff' I was looking for, AND the pliable pita needed to make a rolled pita wrap (similar to The Pita Pit). Today's lunch will be an gyro and egg pita wrap using mayonnaise also made by your recipe.

Just found your awesome blog a couple of days ago. Decided to jump in with this pita bread recipe first. I had tried to make pitas once before in the oven, they ended up more like puffy crackers than bread.

But, with this recipe/technique, I had awesome results and even achieved full blown puffiness in the last 3 of the batch. Hubby loved them and was already discussing all the great things he could stuff inside them and he hadn't even finished eating his first one. His comment was 'you're going to be making a lot of these' - coming from him that was one of the greatest compliments.

Thanks for your fun and easy to understand videos, I could spend the whole day just watching them and trying to decide what to try next.

Great, I love the recipe so much and the breads turned out to be awesome. Thank you!

I used sprouted whole wheat flour for everything and my breads turned out still pretty amazing. However, here are some useful observation:_ they didn't puff as much (5 of them puffed a bit, and the others 3 didn't at all)_ I ended up using 2 cups of flour in total_ all of my 8 pita breads were kinda thin and it was harder to cut them open. I recommend dividing the dough into 6 (or even 5) small portion if you want large size bread_ I kept them in the freezer for a month and they still tasted great. Heat them in the oven at 350 for roughly 5 minutes should be good.

thank you!! i just made them and was sooooo good next to my humus! i miss pita so much since i grew up in israel and it was the only bread i liked and for the last 3 years ever since i moved back to europe i cant find it at all (only the packed ones but they are so bad!)

Hi chef, i have never made any sorts of breads before but after watching this i'm planning to make pitas for my family gathering. My question is how can i use instant yeast in the recipe? Thx so much for the recipe :)

To those who tried wheat flour and failed, I used half white, half wheat, and gave mine an extra 30 minute rise for the gluten to break down after the original 2 hour rise. They were smooth and exactly as the video explained.Becky C

Chef John, thank you for a great recipe. I love homemade hummus served with Pita bread. Our urban area doesn't always have it available so I thought I'd find a recipe for it. I'm going to use your's with the video. Thanks for an entertaining one at that!

Great success. Your recipe made 8 pita. Seven of the eight gave me the "full inflation" the seventh only partial. I've made pita for years in the oven and I e never had this kind of success. I'm testing today to see if I can hold the dough overnight in the fridge. I suspect I can. I'm also trying one pita I made yesterday to see how I like it after one day. You'd be right if you guessed I'm planning a middle eastern dinner party next week. Homemade hummus in the Vitamix, main is your Lambage rolls which I call Malfouf.a carrot parsnip veg dish with middle eastern spices. Thanks your your fabulous recipes and to allrecipes.com for having your recipes for us.A loyal fan,Terry

The trick with this pita dough is to make the sponge first. If you don't it will require too much flour and the pita will be heavy. Ask me how I know.

Even with rapid rise yeast you need to add one cup of warm water with 1 cup of flour and let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes then start adding the addition 1 3/4 flour and your dough will be perfect. If you don't, the mix requires too much flour and the pita will be heavy.Have a super hot skillet..I mean gas on the highest and Always follow chefs directions.Terry - who just made a perfect dough. Can I do that first rise overnight in the fridge?Getting ready for dinner party.

I'm one that has been struggling with making the perfect dough for anything...pizza, tortillas, baguettes. I don't have a scale so I just scoop my flour. Recently in videos I notice people scooping out with one measuring cup and transfering to the desired size measuring cup. I realized that by scooping straight into my measuring cup I was packing it in (more flour than needed). Makes sense since it seems like my dough is always heavy. For this recipe I measure my flour by "sifting the flour" into my measuring cup. Followed the recipe from sponge to all of the times for rising/resting. And Voilà! Puffiness and everything. Finally a dough recipe that worked for me as expected. And the taste was awesome. For puffiness I noticed two things. If it's too thing or big it was harder to puff up because the pita would break a seal letting the steam escape and thwarting your pita from puffing. Sometimes if I could press on the "leak" it would continue puffing up. Also, someone suggested turning your pita after the first 20 seconds. This proved effective in the puffing process. So when I left my pita at a 1/4 inch thick, about 5-6 inches in diameter and turned it after the first 20 seconds I was almost guaranteed to get full puff. So cool. Never will I buy any pitas again. I guess if you are going to use as flat bread and not stuff them then making them thinner and not getting the puff is not a problem. They will still be soft and yummy! Thanks Chef John.

I followed the directions in the video and the pitas turned out perfectly. I got the puff and the taste and texture of the pitas I buy from and nearby Middle Eastern shop. I found that it's better to let them cool before you try them. A pocket was created in each of them. Thanks for the great recipe!

Thank you Chef! Pita bread has been a staple in our family that stems from our Sephardic Middle Eastern background. I totally amazed everyone with this recipe! And it was so much fun to make my own! That's the whole point! Can't wait to try your other recipes!

HI Chef John I really enjoyed your video. I was wondering if this recipe would work with any of the gluten free flours? Such as rice, almond, chickpea, coconut, etc.Second question is do you think you could do more than one at a time on a griddle?

Hi Chef,I've been using your recipe for pita bread to make gluten free ones. And they turn out great every time. I just have to let them sit of at least 5 minutes before putting on skillet, and I put 1 tsp of BP to dough, this makes my gluten free dough rise better then when I put only yeast. I'm going to make some tomorrow again. Can't wait!

I tried this recipe this evening to go with some homemade hummus (not your "green" version - just a "regular" one), veggies and other apps.

Tasted great, but my results were more like sort-of big slim English Muffins than pita. Not much pocket and denser than expected (had good yeast and great rises so I think the leavening was OK). I see 3 variables that might contribute to my variance from your results: wetter dough (mine seemed more fluid than the video - might be my tendency since I've been doing "no-knead" wetter-dough recipes for some months now), food processor dough blade rather than a mixer dough hook (and total time running), and electric range temp difference from your gas range. I did seem to get more bubble-rise when I lowered the temp from electric medium-high to medium-medium high halfway through the batch. Used cast iron skillet.

My guests liked the bread. I've had pita somewhat like this in Greek restaurants ("loafy" with no pockets), so I think I'm in the ballpark ... any hints for improvements for next time?

Thanks again for your continuing series. I've been working my way through a bunch of your recipes this summer.

I love this recipe; I followed as best I could (no scale yet), so I was worried as the sponge was a bit dry, but I soldiered on, and the pita turned out great! They all puffed, and as you said, the taste is far superior to any storebought.

I really enjoy your blog and videos, thank you for teaching so many of us to have fun and learn to cook without trepidation.

I have tried making these twice now. No matter the temp of my pan, the outside of the pita burns before it is done. I suspect it is the flour, but I am unable to get all the flour totally off. Suggestions?

Chef JohnMine came out a bit undercooked inside while almost burning outside with doughy perimeters. Should the flame be medium or medium high? If you've answered this before my apologies for asking again. Too many comments to read through. 😬🙄Thanks

I tried this twice, and am having an issue that perhaps you can assist with. Both times, when I fold the dough under (pulling from the top) it has small breaks in the dough...is not smooth on top like yours. Is this too much flour, or too little? (also.....last night, i mis-read and saw 1.75 TBSP salt, not tsp...seemed like it made a very salty english muffin.....).